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As a friend, when and how do you tell a person what he’s doing with his life is not OK? Everybody faces difficulties throughout life and some people don’t know how to handle it. Sometimes people turn to food for comfort or work out to relieve their stress. Sadly there are too many people who turn to more harmful solutions and don’t realize how it affects the people around them, especially in college.
We hear horror stories of the extreme alcohol abuse. There are more people these days who turn to drugs, too. I’m not just talking about weed. It’s when a friend decides to turn to harder things like pain killers or crack that I start to worry. It is undoubtedly easier to do nothing when there are problems in a friend’s life, but standing by and watching things happen isn’t the right thing to do in these types of situations.
Although every situation is different, a friend expressing concern can have an impact and carry a lot of weight. It’s almost always going to be a fight, and it takes a while for some people to come to a realization. Just make sure you remind yourself that you’re fighting for a friend’s well being.
Too many times, a person will hit rock bottom before they realize they need help and even then some people don’t figure it out.
My cousin overdosed and was in a coma for a week this summer. Not even two months later, one of our other cousins saw him lurking around with a known drug dealer in their town. Drugs almost took his life, but he still decided to put himself back in the same environment. It made me so angry after being supportive and talking about how maybe this was going to be what finally changed him.
These cases often come with a bundle of emotions coming from every direction. You end up being angry with your friend or relative for being so willing to mess up their life. You get scared that something bad will inevitably happen. You get frustrated when you feel like you’re getting nowhere.
Then on top of your own emotions, you share the emotions of the person who’s addicted. More often than not, the first emotion is going to be anger. They don’t want to be told they have an issue, even if they already know it’s true.
Be willing to put up a fight, and when it seems too hard, just remember you’re not the only person fighting for the same thing. In the end, it pays off when you realize you did what was right for you, your friend and all the people the addiction affects.
When a person is doing something to his own life, he just doesn’t realize the waterfall effect it has on all the people around him. So be the friend who’s willing to show him just what his decisions are doing.
Amy Brooks is photo editor for The Maine Campus.
